Author Interviews

Feeling Lucky with Author Heather Alexander

By on November 10, 2023   /   Articles, Author Interviews, New Releases, Nonfiction, Nonfiction Titles  

Welcome to MUF, Heather Alexander, author of The Good Luck Book: A Celebration of Global Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore (DK Children), out November 2023. Heather Alexander is the acclaimed author of more than 70 books for children, and she also works as a children’s book editor, packager, and literary scout. Here, she talks to MUF contributor Andrea Pyros about luck, her research process, and why we really cover our mouths when we yawn. 

Mixed-Up Files: Tell us a little bit about The Good Luck Book. Where did the idea for this come from?

Heather Alexander: THE GOOD LUCK BOOK is a large, illustrated, middle-grade nonfiction book that explores fascinating traditions and superstitions from all over the world. Kids will discover how and why they started, why people still do them today, if they hold up to science, the good luck charms we share, and the unique ways we wish for good fortune. All my nonfiction titles spring from my curiosity of the world around me or from articles that spark my interest. This one originated very close to home. You see, I generally pride myself on being very logical, but then I realized how many little superstitious rituals I do without thinking. They range from the typical, like crossing fingers or wishing on shooting star or blowing out the candles on a birthday cake, to the more personal, like knocking the side of an airplane before I enter. It got me thinking about lucky numbers, lucky foods, lucky animals–and when the list went on and on, I knew there was a book there.

The Good Luck Book by Heather Alexander

MUF: What was your research process like? How did you find all the different traditions and beliefs about luck?

HA: I always scour libraries and used bookstores, both in person and online. And for this book, I looked at a lot of university folklore websites and even checked out international message boards on the topic. Everything I found was then cross-referenced for multiple sources. There are sooooooo many superstitions and lucky charms throughout the world so I tried to focus on the more popular ones. Also, there are a myriad of variations on similar rituals, depending on where you live or where your family is from, so the one I ended up choosing may not be exactly way the reader has heard it.

MUF: How did you and your illustrator work together? What was that like? (The art looks great!)

HA: I know, right? The art is stupendous! It was created by four different artists: Ruth Burrows, Teo Georgiev, Sonny Ross, and Sarah Walsh. Usually, I only have the honor of working with one illustrator on a book, but because there was so much to illustrate in a relatively short time Stefan Georgio, the art director at DK, decided the more, the merrier–and the faster. While I didn’t interact directly with the talented artists, I did give art notes through Vicky Armstrong, my editor, and Stefan.

MUF: We’re sure you learned all sorts of fascinating things during your research and writing journey on The Good Luck Book. Can you tell us a few facts that really surprised you?

Author Heather Alexander

HA: It’s hard to pick a few! How about:

• Covering your mouth when you yawn comes from a very old superstition. Your hand was there to block spirits from coming out of or going into your open mouth!
• “If birds fly low, expect rain and a blow,” is a popular saying. Can birds predict “fowl” weather? It seems so! Most birds have a Vitali organ. This is a special receptor in their middle-ear that can sense a drop in atmospheric pressure, and that drop means a storm is on its way.
• Many shops and homes in India hang seven chilies and a lemon from a thread on the door. It’s an old superstition meant to keep away Alakshmi, the goddess of misfortune. She likes eating sour and hot things, so if she’s happy with the treat, it’s believed she won’t enter to bring bad luck. But, it turns out, this is actually a supersmart natural pesticide. When the cotton thread pierces the chilies and lemon, a pungent and sour odor is slowly released, and this stench helps to repel flies and mosquitoes!

MUF: What do you want readers to know about the concept of luck?
HA: Lucky charms can be fun and superstitions interesting to learn about, but the most important thing is to make smart choices and search for real answers. We each have the power to decide what we believe and what we don’t, what we let scare us and what we don’t, what wishes we send out into the universe, and—most of all—what kind of luck we bring to ourselves and the people around us.

Learn more about Heather at her website or on Instagram @halexanderbooks.
The Good Luck Book: A Celebration of Global Traditions, Superstitions, and Folklore by Heather Alexander, illustrations by: Ruth Burrows, Teo Georgiev, Sonny Ross, and Sarah Walsh.

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STEM Tuesday — Spooky and Scary Science– Interview with Gail Jarrow

By on October 24, 2023   /   Author Interviews, Spooky and Scary Science, STEM Tuesday  

Welcome to STEM Tuesday: Author Interview, a repeating feature for the last Tuesday of every month. Go Science-Tech-Engineering-Math!

Happy Spooky Season! What better way to celebrate this deliciously horrific month than with a book that’s TERRIFYING?!

American Murderer: The Parasite That Haunted the South is a riveting tale of an unwelcome guest that wreaked havoc in the 19th and early 20th centuries by boring into unsuspecting bodies through the skin and leaving its human hosts with wrecked bodies and brains.

Horrifying! Let’s dig in with Gail Jarrow!

 

American Murderer

Included on NPR’s 2022 “Books We Love” List Finalist, 2023 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction ALSC Notable Children’s Book

Andi Diehn: My first question feels a tad obvious, but why did you devote a whole book to hookworms?!   

Gail Jarrow: Gross and disgusting appeals to many  in my audience of ages 10+. You can’t beat a vampire creature that clings to the inside of your intestine wall with its suction-cup mouth and sucks your blood until you get sick or  die. And what’s more disgusting than a discussion of leaky outhouses? But beyond that, my account of hookworm disease in the U.S. is a little-known story showing  the  changes in medicine and public health that occurred in the early 1900s. I also was drawn to the subject because it dramatically illustrates how  researchers used the scientific method to make medical discoveries.

AD: Arthur Looss and his accidental discovery of how hookworms entered the body – wow! What does this tell you about the courage of scientists (or at least that particular scientist!)? 

GJ: You have to admire them!  Looss made a dangerous lab error that he recognized as an opportunity. In  research for my books, I’ve encountered several scientists who have intentionally put themselves at risk. Sometimes they’re so sure of themselves that they don’t consider their experiment to be reckless. But in other less certain situations,  they decide that being a human guinea pig is the only way to test a hypothesis. In Bubonic Panic, I tell how Waldemar Haffkine injected himself with the first plague vaccine in 1897, keeping records of his physical reaction. In Red Madness, Joseph Goldberger swallowed a “pill” made of feces, urine, blood, and saliva from pellagra victims to prove that the disease wasn’t contagious. His 1916 experiment put the infectious theory to rest. (Pellagra is a vitamin deficiency disease.) In 1984, Barry Marshall successfully tested his hypothesis that a bacterium caused stomach ulcers by swallowing a beaker full of the microbe. He did get an ulcer, which he cured with antibiotics, but he also received the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery.hookworm

AD: Stiles’s name for his newly discovered hookworm – the American Murderer – is chilling! Why do you think he gave it such a chilling moniker?

GJ: Stiles wasn’t a subtle man. He knew this human hookworm killed people, and he gave it a name to communicate that fact. The name certainly brought attention to the parasite, and it gave me a good book title.

AD: Your descriptions of how people with hookworm were treated – even by medical professionals – is heartbreaking. What’s the lesson here? How can we use that moment in American history to improve current medical practices?hookworm victims

GJ: Having written a few books about the history of medicine, I’ve learned that  “accepted” theories can be wrong. Patients suffer when the mantra is “everyone agrees that. . ..”  As part of my research for American Murderer, I read medical books from the late 19th/early 20th centuries. According to the experts, human hookworm disease didn’t exist in the U.S. except in recent migrants. But Charles Stiles proved that was incorrect and that millions of southerners were infected, probably for generations. He had studied in Europe, where the disease was recognized and easily treated. The American medical establishment, particularly in the South, was slow to go along because Stiles was a parasitologist, not a physician. They also didn’t want to admit that, because of their ignorance, they’d misdiagnosed and failed to treat their patients for years. The sick people were dismissed by  their communities as lazy and stupid. And because victims were usually infected by hookworms at home,  it appeared as if these undesirable character traits simply ran in the family.  The lesson for today is that the medical community must be open to new ideas, knowledge, and approaches and should not dismiss them for the wrong reasons.hookworm education

AD: The cotton mills and Stiles’s narrow focus on hookworms – how might history have been different if Stiles had entertained the idea that other issues affected the mill workers?

GJ: Perhaps that  would have sped up reforms, especially concerning child labor. Still, just a few years later, in 1916, Joseph Goldberger and the U.S. Public Health Service investigated the health of mill workers and identified poor nutrition as a pervasive problem. These studies, as well as Lewis Hine’s photographs of child laborers, helped to bring reforms.

AD: The story of the hookworm is the story of public health – what did we learn from that era that we’ve put to use in more recent times, like with covid?

GJ: The hookworm campaign that started in 1909 demonstrated that in order to reduce or eliminate a disease,  it’s important to educate people about prevention and treatment. The information must be explained clearly and accurately without being condescending. In the early 1900s, newspapers were key to disseminating that information.The articles were written by Stiles, the Public Health Service, and doctors. Today we see similar efforts to transmit facts about COVID, influenza, prenatal care, vaccines, and other health concerns. But times have changed. People no longer have just one reliable source to keep them informed, such as their local newspaper. While additional kinds of media are available to educate the public today,  more unvetted, confusing, and false information is readily available, too.

before and after hookworm victim

A before and after image of a boy cured of hookworms

The hookworm campaign also showed that people are more likely to accept and act on information when they hear it from someone they trust. That meant keeping the  campaign local, at the county or state level and even in the schools and churches. The strategy was to reach people where they were, no matter who they were in terms of socio-economic status or race. The clinics  were staffed by local doctors and community volunteers known by the visitors. Today we see a decline in trust of public health institutions like the CDC and FDA–for many reasons. That’s proving to be a problem.

AD: It’s wonderful to see the before and after photos of victims who were cured, but I also worry about longterm effects on their mental/emotional health – did officials do anything to support individuals once they’d been cured of hookworm? 

GJ: Judging from the personal testimonies I read, I’d say that people who had been cured felt so much better physically that they were  happier and more positive about their lives. With energy to work and learn, they could support and care for their families. Rather than focusing on emotional support (an approach which is more of our time than theirs),  the campaign’s follow-up plan was to stop reinfection by educating hookworm victims about how the parasites spread and helping to install effective waste disposal systems at homes. State education departments added hookworm to the curriculum so that students learned about the disease’s cause, prevention, and treatment. Laws  in southern states required well-maintained outhouses in schools. Eventually, sewers were built in most towns and cities, which stopped the spread of hookworm and other intestinal diseases. But even today, many rural homes like mine are not hooked up to a municipal sewer, and it’s up to the homeowner to have a safe system. newspaper clippings

AD: Why was it important to you to bring readers to the present time to see what the worm situation is like today?

GJ: I always aim to convey hope in my endings.  Hookworm infections were significantly reduced in the United States. Research brought better treatments. The recognized importance of proper waste management spurred  infrastructure improvements.  At the same time, I tried to get young readers to think about what happens when they flush  a toilet and how their health can be affected by tiny parasites. I even included some advice about wearing proper footwear on our southeastern beaches to avoid infection by dog hookworms. 

I also wanted young readers to be aware that at least 1.5 billion people worldwide are still afflicted with soil-transmitted worms, including hookworms. These infections negatively impact a country’s economy and political stability.  It’s essential to know what’s going on in the world beyond. Sooner or later, these things affect all of us.

***

Gail Jarror headshot

Gail Jarrow is the author of nonfiction books and novels for ages 8-18.

Her books for young readers have earned the Winner of the Excellence in Nonfiction Award from YALSA-ALA; the Robert F. Sibert Honor Book Award; Orbis Pictus Honor; Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award; the Jefferson Cup; Grateful American Book Prize Honor; Golden Kite Honor for NF for Older Readers; Eureka! Gold Award; ALA Notable Book; Notable Social Studies Trade Book; the National Science Teaching Association Outstanding Science Trade Book and Best STEM Book, Best Books awards from Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Booklist, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Bank Street College of Education, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and NPR. She has received additional awards and recognition from the American Booksellers Association, American Library Association, Public Library Association, the Society of School Librarians International, and Junior Library Guild.

 

Andi DiehnAndi Diehn grew up near the ocean chatting with horseshoe crabs and now lives in the mountains surrounded by dogs, cats, lizards, chickens, ducks, moose, deer, and bobcats, some of which help themselves to whatever she manages to grow in the garden. You are most likely to find her reading a book, talking about books, writing a book, or discussing politics with her sons. She has 20 children’s books published or forthcoming.

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Author Interview: Elizabeth C. Bunce – Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity

By on October 16, 2023   /   Author Interviews  

Elizabeth C Bunce photoWe’re excited to have Elizabeth C. Bunce on here today to talk about her new release. Let’s start with learning a bit more about you, Elizabeth, and then we’ll talk about Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity.

Did you have any childhood dreams for when you became an adult? If so, did they come true?

Absolutely! I knew I wanted to be an author from the time I was fairly young—and here I am. (We maybe won’t talk about how I also pictured myself surrounded by cats. Ahem.) But dreams don’t just “come true.” You have to make them happen. I read, studied, practiced, found other writers, and learned everything I could about how to become an author. And I wrote.

Elizabeth 5th grade

Elizabeth 5th grade

What advice would you give to your eight-year-old self?

Don’t be ashamed of the things you love, even if no one else understands why you like them. Collect those rocks! Plaster your room with posters of hippopotamuses! Read mysteries! Learn to knit! Don’t let anyone tell you rocks and hippopotamuses and mysteries and knitting aren’t cool, because they totally are. And you know it.

Did you love to read as a child? Can you tell us some favorite books?

Wow, this interview could go on forever! I absolutely devoured not just books but words. I was the kid who read cereal boxes. The Bookmobile stopped about half a mile from our house, and we would trek down there every week, and trek back home with armloads of books: the Betsy-Tacy books by Maude Hart Lovelace, Ruth Chew’s terrifically spooky stories, The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and every Trixie Belden book I could get my hands on. I loved everything spooky and mysterious and historical from a very early age—which explains the things I love to write.

Have you had any careers besides writing?

I have had a variety of different writing jobs, but I’ve spent my entire career working with words. I’ve been a technical writer, worked at magazines, wrote corporate employment manuals (nobody says, “I want to write employee handbooks when I grow up!” and there is a reason for that…). Writing is a skill you can use in any career path, from education, to science, to the law.

Why do you write?

I live with a population of imaginary people in my head clamoring for attention. When I was a kid, I thought I was supposed to grow out of my imaginary friends. I never did. Now they get to be your imaginary friends, and it’s fabulous!

What do you drink while writing?

Coffee. So. Much. Coffee.

Do you have any special things around your desk that inspire you when you write?

Oh, you mean besides the cats? Yes, I’m always surrounded by props that work as touchstones for my stories—I actually give writing workshops on this topic. Right now I can reach out and touch several items for my current project: a large brass key, a miniature silk bonnet, a rock with clawmarks on it… Writing books is such an ethereal endeavor that it really helps me to have real, physical objects to handle as I’m working.

Do you have a regular writing schedule?

I do, but “regular” depends on the book and my current deadlines. I have written many books very late at night, but my current project seems to like the mid-afternoons—and one of the Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries surprised me utterly by catching me at work first thing in the morning! (Which literally never happens. With anything.) When I’m on deadline, either drafting or revision, I typically work in two or three big chunks of time every day—even on weekends—punctuated by breaks for the rest of my life: chores, errands, working out, Making.

Just a note about Making. If you’re wondering what it is, check out her website here to read more about it. Elizabeth, we’re kindred spirits when it comes to Making. I love everything you’ve mentioned and have tried almost everything you mentioned. Readers, feel free to share what you like making in the comments. We’d love to know.

Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity book coverAnd now that we know more about Elizabeth, let’s find out about more about her book, Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity.

What inspired you to create this story?

Like all my stories, Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity is a culmination of several things that had been brewing in the back of my mind for a while. One was the idea of exploring a new side of Miss Judson’s heritage—her Scottish ancestry. Another was playing with a new mystery “trope” for Myrtle & Co: where the sleuth unexpectedly inherits a big legacy, along with a murder mystery. And another was the nudge from my subconscious to get back to writing ghost stories, after several books with absolutely no paranormal elements. When I remembered that in the Victorian era, ghost hunting was a burgeoning science, I knew how I could work a haunting into Myrtle’s decidedly unghostly world!

Can you share how you plot your mysteries?

Funny you should ask that now, on this book—which was done completely differently from every other Myrtle Hardcastle book! First, mysteries are really two stories intertwined into one narrative: the tale of the crime itself and how that was committed, plus the story of the investigation, the scenes you see on the page, of the sleuth figuring everything out. Typically I am a devoted participant in NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month. The schedule for the Myrtle books has meant that November is the perfect time to start drafting the new book, so I would get to work figuring out Whodunit: who dies, why, and how. I’d get to the end of the month, look at my glorious heap of words, and triumphantly think, “I’ve done it! I’ve written the story!”

…And then wake up on December 1, and realize: No, I’d only written the backstory. I still have to sit down to the hard work of deciding what clues I’ll need and the scenes that show Myrtle & C0 solving the crime.

However. The schedule for Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity was a little bit different, and somehow instead of spending that initial month working out the who-what-where-why of the murder, I simply launched myself headlong into the book itself, finding the clues and figuring out the story along with Myrtle! Instead of planting clues whose meaning I already understood, I flung interesting and mysterious things into my path and figured out what they meant as I learned more about the story. It was certainly interesting to approach the story from a different direction—and having done it both ways now, I can confidently say: I don’t really like either method. Ha!

Did you base Myrtle on anyone you know?

*Looks around self-consciously*  No comment. Ahem.

In fact, Myrtle is me, when I was in eighth grade and my homeroom teacher called me argumentative and antisocial. I was a nerdy kid with somewhat “morbid” interests, and prone to speak up when I didn’t agree with what I was being told. That’s how I wound up as the lead prosecutor in Mock Trial! It’s been a real joy revisiting the girl I was and giving her worthy adventures Young Elizabeth would have loved (and a more understanding teacher!).

Have you had any experiences like those Myrtle does?

Well, thankfully, I have never found myself embroiled in a murder case! (Although, troublingly, that has happened to a few young people I know in real life.) But many of the things she feels are certainly based on my own experiences facing similar challenges: not fitting in with her peers; knowing full well who she is and what she wants from life even if it doesn’t fit the mold the world has planned for her; embracing her true self; standing up for herself and what’s important to her.

Do you have any advice for readers on how to face similar situations to what Myrtle faces in this book?

Don’t give up. Keep asking questions. If the first person you ask can’t help you, find someone else. When you know in your heart something is important, you have to keep going!

What is your favorite part of the book?

The dogs! We are a cat family now, but for many years we had dogs. So. Many. Dogs: a big, crazy family of coonhounds we raised from birth after finding their mama as a (pregnant!) stray.  The zany pack of foxhounds Myrtle encounters at Rockfforde Hall is based on them. People have always asked me when I was going to write about “The Buncehounds,” but it took just the right story for them to make an appearance. All of the animals in Myrtle’s stories are based on my real-life animal acquaintances, so letting her experience the wild life of being surrounded by loud, lovable scenthounds was definitely special!

What do you hope readers will take away from the story?

I’d love to see them curious about Scotland, the Scots language, and Scottish history and culture. And I hope they find it a crackin’ ghost story, tae boot!

Please tell us about your other books.

Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity is the fifth (!) volume in the Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries, which take Myrtle all over the UK, solving all sorts of nefarious crimes. I’ve also written several YA historical fantasies, including the fairytale retelling A Curse Dark as Gold, which also has a spooky, ghostly setting.

Can you share what you’re working on now?

Nope! It’s super-duper top secret, but it’s very exciting, and I hope to have news by year’s end.

Wow! How exciting! Can’t wait to hear more about it.

Thanks ever so much for agreeing to the interview, Elizabeth! I know our young readers, as well as teachers and librarians will enjoy learning more about you and Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity! And we look forward to seeing what you come up with next.

About Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity

In the fifth book of the Edgar Award-winning series, Myrtle Hardcastle uncovers a string of murders during a treasure hunt on a haunted Scottish estate.

When her governess inherits an estate on a Scottish island, amateur detective Myrtle Hardcastle couldn’t be more excited. Unfortunately, the ancestral castle is both run-down and haunted. Ghostly moans echo in the walls, and there are rumors of a cursed treasure lost on the island—an ancient silver brooch that may have cost the former lord his life. But who had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill him? And could this Scottish trip mean the end of Myrtle’s plans to get her father and governess together?

Then Myrtle’s investigation stirs a villain out of hiding. The estate’s boat is stolen, so there’s no escape from the island. Myrtle is forced to play a deadly game, hunting for the brooch with a thief breathing down her neck—someone who will stop at nothing to get the treasure, even if it means murder.

About the Author

Elizabeth C. Bunce is the Edgar Award-winning author of the Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series, beginning with Premeditated Myrtle, an Amazon Top 20 Children’s Book of the Year for 2020, an Indie Next Pick, winner of the 2021 Edgar Allan Poe “Edgar” Award, a Society of Midland Authors Honoree, a Library of Congress National Book Festival selection, a Best Children’s/YAA BookPage Best Book of 2020, A Mighty Girl’s 2020 Books of the Year, a two-time Edgar Award finalist, a three-time Anthony Award finalist, and a three-time Agatha Award finalist. The series continues in How to Get Away with Myrtle (a #1 Amazon New Release) and Cold-Blooded Myrtle, also an Edgar Award finalist, Agatha Award finalist, and Anthony Award finalist, as well as a Kirkus 2021 Top 10 Best Book of the Year–Middle Grade Fiction, a Silver Falchion Award finalist, and a Wall Street Journal holiday guide recommendation. The fourth book, In Myrtle Peril, is a 2023 Anthony Award finalist and 2023 Agatha Award finalist, and all four are available now in all formats with the fifth installment, Myrtle, Means, & Opportunity, coming in 2023.

Her first novel, A Curse Dark as Gold, won the inaugural William C. Morris Award for a young adult debut novel and was named a Smithsonian Notable Book and an Amelia Bloomer Project selection. Her high fantasy Thief Errant series includes the novels StarCrossed, A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best book for 2010, and Liar’s Moon, one of Kirkus Blog’s Favorite YA Novels of 2011. StarCrossed and A Curse Dark as Gold have appeared on Oprah’s Kid’s Reading List. Her novels have been named to the ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list, and she is a four-time Kansas Notable Book winner. An accomplished needlewoman and historical costumer, Elizabeth lives in the Midwest with her husband, her cats, and a boggart who steals books.

Check out her website at elizabethcbunce.com.

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